On This Memorial Day..

I'd like to send love and admiration to those who have served their country.

I have friends and family who have served in the Armed Forces and their bravery and selflessness is undeniable and insurmountable. I commend those who have honorably fought the good fight and wish peace to those we’ve lost.

Since the days of man, there’s been a fight. "Good verse Evil" etc. and it hurts to know so many people have been lost to the actions of battle. I wish for the day when we all can collectively put down our weapons, drop our shields, embrace one another and work together for a better future. Violence is not the way, Give Peace a Chance.

Heres a little history about the True Origins of Memorial Day that mainstream media tends to leave out:

According to Professor David Blight of Yale University, the first Memorial Day took place on May 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC, after a group of African-Americans, mostly former slaves, gave 257 Union soldiers a proper burial. The black community in Charleston then consecrated the new cemetary with “an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people,” led by 3,000 black school children. It was initially called “Decoration Day.”

As the U.S. Civil War came to a close in April 1865, Union troops entered the city of Charleston, S.C., where four years prior the war had begun. While white residents had largely fled the city, Black residents of Charleston remained to celebrate and welcome the troops, who included the TwentyFirst Colored Infantry. Their celebration on May 1, 1865, the first “Decoration Day,” later became Memorial Day.

Yale University historian David Blight retold the story:

During the final year of the war, the Confederates had converted the planters’ horse track, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, into an outdoor prison. Union soldiers were kept in horrible conditions in the interior of the track; at least 257 died of exposure and disease and were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand. Some 28 black workmen went to the site, re-buried the Union dead properly, and built a high fence around the cemetery. They whitewashed the fence and built an archway over an entrance on which they inscribed the words, “Martyrs of the Race Course.”Then, black Charlestonians in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people on the slaveholders’ race course. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy’s horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freed people. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.”

At 9 a.m. on May 1, the procession stepped off led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing “John Brown’s Body.” The children were followed by several hundred black women with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses.

Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantry and other black and white citizens. As many as possible gathered in the cemetery enclosure; a childrens’ choir sang “We’ll Rally around the Flag,” the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and several spirituals before several black ministers read from scripture.

-Becker, Ben. " We Did It, They Hid It: How Memorial Day Was Stripped Of It’s African American Roots" Originally for LiberationNews.org, Re-Published By BlackThen.org May 2015. Web

http://blackthen.com/we-did-it-they-hid-it-how-memorial-day-was-stripped-of-its-african-american-roots/

In order to lend a hand to those Soldiers and Families in need please visit the Wounded Warrior Foundation at: wwww.WoundedWarriorProject.org.